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How Can I Record Vehicle Mileage As a Reimbursable Expense?

Chief Mechanic · September 6, 2010 ·

To record vehicle mileage as a reimbursable expense, you first need to set up the vehicle in the Vehicle List and the Service or Other Charge Item that represents the rate at which customers will be invoiced for mileage.

Once these preliminary steps have been completed, click on the Company->;Enter Vehicle Mileage… menu selection to record the mileage for a trip.

To make this trip a reimbursable expense, be sure to check the Billable checkbox, specify the appropriate Customer:Job, and choose the Item you previously created that is the source for your invoice description and the rate at which you will invoice your customer. Enter your Notes for the trip – you’ll have the option of incorporating this information into the customer invoice later.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Vehicle Mileage Billable

Click the Save & Close or Save & New button to save your work.

Next, click on the Customers->Invoice for Time & Expenses menu selection to start a new customer invoice and add mileage expenses to it. Select the Mileage tab. Unlike reimbursable expenses that appear on the Expenses or Items tabs, you have more control over how information is transferred to a customer invoice for expenses that appear on the Time or Mileage tabs.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Choose Billable Mileage

Click the Options… button to specify how information will be transferred to a customer invoice. You can opt to use the Notes you entered when you recorded the mileage (Transfer activity notes), use the description you specified when you created the Item (Transfer item descriptions), or both (Transfer both notes and descriptions). You can also choose to have each trip appear as a separate line item or to combine trips that use the same service item and rate. If you opt for the latter, only the item description will appear on the customer invoice.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Options for Transferring Billable Mileage

Click Ok to close the Options for Transferring Billable Mileage window.

Select the mileage expense items that you’d like to include on a customer invoice and click Ok. The expense items you selected will appear using the options you specified. Complete the invoice and save your work.

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How Do I Prepare To Charge Customers For Mileage?

Chief Mechanic · September 6, 2010 ·

The first step to charge customers or clients for vehicle mileage is to create a new Item with a type of Service or Other Charge. The Sales Price that you enter for this Item will be the price charged to the customer for mileage.

QuickBooks maintains a separate list of Mileage Rates, but these rates are not automatically used to invoice customers. Instead, they’re just a reference for the historical rates allowed by taxing authorities.

Click on Lists->Item List to add a new Item. Be sure to specify the Type as Service or Other Charge, and to select the This item is used in assemblies or is a reimbursable charge checkbox just below the Item Name/Number field.

Specify both an Expense Account and an Income Account for the Item you create. Enter the description you’d like to appear on customer invoices and the rate you’d like to charge customers for mileage in the Sales Information block.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 New Item Mileage

Click Ok to save the Item.

You’ll use this item code on customer invoices and to identify those mileage expenses that will be billed to a customer as a reimbursable expense.

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How Can I Display a List of All Names?

Chief Mechanic · September 5, 2010 ·

In QuickBooks, Customers, Customer:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees are called Names. In transaction entry screens, the selection of a Name is filtered to include only the type of Names normally associated with that transaction type. For example, when entering a Vendor Bill, the selection of a Name is filtered to only include Vendors.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to review a list of all Names in one place, especially when trying to follow a consistent pattern if an entity appears on more than 1 list.

To display a list of all Names, follow these simple steps:

Open the Write Checks window by clicking on the Banking->Write Checks menu selection or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
In the Pay to the Order of field (ie, the check payee), use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to display a list of all Names
Add the Name List window to the Icon Bar by clicking on the View->Add “Name List” to Icon Bar… menu selection
Assign a Label and Description to the new window
Optionally, change the default icon selection that will appear in the Icon Bar to represent the Name List
Click Ok

You now have a list of all Names in an easy-to-access window. The list provides a consolidated window of 4 pieces of information: Active Status, Name, Name Type, and Balance Total.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Name List

Note that the Write Checks window was used to access all Names because a check can be written to all of the different Name types and by-passes the filtering set by QuickBooks on different transaction types.

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What Are the Procedures and Journal Entries To Record a Customer’s NSF or Bounced Check?

Chief Mechanic · September 4, 2010 ·

If you process enough transactions, sooner or later you’ll have to account for a returned check. A check that is returned unpaid is given many labels (such as NSF or bounced check) but the accounting treatment is the same.

The procedures outlined below work effectively for POS users in both single stores and chains. Activities such as receiving bank notices of fees and returned items typically take place at the headquarters rather than the store level, so these tasks are performed in QuickBooks financial software rather than POS. However, in POS a payment can be accepted by clicking the Take Payment button at the bottom of the New Sales Receipt window. This allows a customer to replace a returned check at any store in a chain. When POS exchanges data with QuickBooks, the customer’s account will be updated.

For this example, let’s assume we received a returned check for $50 from a customer named Customer with check returned unpaid. For handling the returned item, the bank charged a $25 fee, and we’ll only seek to recover from the customer the actual bank charges. Rather than investigating each fee separately, some firms set a fixed fee to charge customers. Hopefully, this customer will replace the unpaid check with another one, but we’ll need to record the activity in our cash account before that takes place.

Here are 2 methods to account for the returned check:

create a new invoice to the customer for the amount of the returned check and fees your firm adds and a general journal entry for the expense of the fees the bank charged
use 1 general journal entry for the entire process

Although the second method appears simpler, we recommend the first method because it preserves normal accounting procedures and provides a better paper trail by creating an invoice that can be sent to the customer to assist collecting the bounced check.

Method 1 – Re-invoice the Customer

Before accounting for this specific returned check, set up 2 new Other Charge Items on the Item List. These Items will only be set up once.

The first other charge will be used to invoice the customer for the amount of the returned check. At this point, it should be set to a $0.00 amount and have a Tax Code that is non-taxable. An Item Name of Returned Check will serve as a reminder for how this charge will be used. The Account must be set to the bank account into which the original returned check was deposited. Later, the amount of the returned check will be entered when the customer is invoiced for the returned check, along with any applicable bank charges. If you make deposits into multiple bank accounts, you’ll need a separate item for each bank account; in this case, include a reference to the bank account in the Item Name.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 New Item Returned Check

Next, add a second other charge for possible bank charges. Like the other charge for the check amount itself, this charge should have a Tax Code that is on-taxable. The amount can be set to either $0.00 (to indicate it varies depending on the situation) or a fixed fee representing a firm’s standard returned check fee. An Item Name of Returned Check Bank Charges will be a good reminder of how this charge will be used. The Account should be set to either an other income account or the expense account used for the original bank charge. In this example, we created an other income account for reimbursed bank charges.

With the other charges properly set up, make a general journal entry for just the charge the bank deducted from your bank account. To do that, click the Company->Make General Journal Entries… menu and enter the actual bank charge as a credit to the bank account and a debit to bank charges expenses as follows:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Make General Journal Entries NSF 1

Next, click on the menu Customers->Create Invoices (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I) to invoice the customer for both the amount of the returned check and the fee charged by your firm. In our example, the returned check was $50, and the bank charges are $25.

Here’s the Create Invoices window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices for Customer NSF Check

This invoice will be reflected on the customer’s account and will provide a document to present to the customer to collect payment. Hopefully, the customer will replace the returned check. At that point, use the normal procedure for recording a customer payment (Customers->Receive Payments) to record the replaced payment and depositing the funds (Banking->Make Deposits).

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Receive Payment for NSF Check

This approach has some important benefits. It creates an invoice to help collect both the unpaid amount and the bank charges. It also preserves the normal work flow for processing payments and making deposits. It’s also the approach recommended by Intuit in the documentation for QuickBooks.

To review the debits and credits of each step, press the Journal button (or Ctrl + Y). The general journal entry we first entered accounted for the actual bank charge. When we recorded the invoice, we produced a debit to AR in the amount of $75, a credit to our bank account for the $50 check, and a credit to an other income account for $25. The invoice in effect reduced the bank account by the amount of the returned check, so at this point, our bank balance is accurate.

Method 2 – Make 1 General Journal Entry

Some prefer to accomplish all of the above in just a single general journal entry. To do that, click on the Company->Make General Journal Entries… menu and make these entries:

AR: debit of $75 with the customer’s name entered in the Name field
Bank account: credit of $50 to reduce the bank balance
Bank account: credit of $25 to reduce the bank balance
Bank service charges (expense): debit of $25
Reimbursement income: credit of $25 to record the revenue (optionally enter the customer’s name in the Name field)

Ideally, although it’s not shown in the screen shot below, the debit to AR should be entered on the first line of the general journal entry.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Make General Journal Entries NSF 2

The steps outlined above for recording a customer payment (Customers->Receive Payments) and depositing the funds (Banking->Make Deposits) are then used to complete the accounting when the customer replaces the returned check.

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customer

Accounting

Developer

Intuit